The gene annotation file of Cheilodactylus zonatus

The spottedtail morwong (Cheilodactylus zonatus) is an economically important fish primarily feeding on crustaceans and mollusks, and is widely distributed in the western Pacific. However, no valid reference genome of C. zonatus has been available, which severely hinders further research on its biology and genomic breeding programs. Here, we presented a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of C. zonatus using PacBio sequencing and Hi-C technologies. The chromosome-level genome has a total length of 598.6Mb with a contig N50 of 25.86 Mb. Approximately 97.8% of the assembly lengths were anchored to 24 pseudochromosomes. In total, 26,083 protein-coding genes were predicted, among which 23,393 genes (89.6%) were functionally annotated. The completeness of the assembly was estimated to be 98.9% using BUSCO. In summary, the first reference genome of G. zonatus in this study will not only provide pivotal genetic resources for further biological and evolutionary studies of G. zonatus, but also benefit the development of genomic hybridization breeding in the artificial C. zonatus industry.